Change
by Ravenclaw42
Summary: A very short Lupin fic (I suppose you could call it Remus-torture) that comes right after book 4. It isn't much more than an excuse to describe the transformation. R/R, please!


**Change**  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Lupin or Sirius but I own the story, yada, yada, yada. You know the drill. And if you absolutely must sue me, be forewarned that I have no money whatsoever.  
  
Timeline: This takes place in the summer after book 4, during that time when Sirius is staying at Lupin's for a while (on Dumbledore's orders). On Halloween 2001 there was actually a full moon, you know? A blue moon, too. An important time for magic people (pagans & wicca practitioners and such, I mean). The statement about 46 years is made up and I don't think it's actually true. I don't have a lunar calendar, although I intend to find one eventually.  
  
A/N: I just had a sudden urge to write a little something or other about a werewolf, and, of course -- being a MAJOR HP fan -- Lupin was the first to come to mind.  
  
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The sun was setting. Every shade of gold and red imaginable shone down, flicking through the spectrum with surprising speed. It grew cold quickly; far too quickly. There were a few clouds in the sky. Not enough. The light rain earlier had left the white puffs in the sky torn apart, shredded. Why the rain couldn't have waited till tomorrow to destroy his little bit of protection was beyond him. It was as if the universe wanted him to suffer. He just wished he knew what he had done wrong to deserve this.  
  
The signs were already starting. His hair was losing its gray flecks and becoming darker brown. He could feel a steady ache in all his joints as they prepared to change. Standing was becoming more difficult because his knee caps were shrinking; canine knee joints were backwards to humans'. His arms were weighing him down as they got ever slightly thicker with new muscle. His head hurt, seeing as his brain was also decreasing in size.  
  
Sirius stood by him on the hill overlooking the large expanse of woods. His friend was helping to support him, even though it was far too late for such help. Remus ran his tongue over his lengthening canine teeth and winced.  
  
It's too dangerous, he said in a low voice, lisping slightly, unused to talking with such bulky teeth. Leave me here. I'll be fine.  
  
Sirius frowned. No, you won't, he said. I'll stay well enough away, but I'm not leaving you by yourself. The village isn't that far away.  
  
Remus shuddered, feeling a bit queasy as hair started to grow thick over his back. There was a small _snap!_ as his spine lost a couple of vertebrae, shortening. He fell forward to his knees, bringing Sirius with him. Firs' Hallowee' i' 46 years wi' a full moon, he said ruefully, lisping harder. I ha'e After that he found he couldn't speak any more, but gave a very low growl deep in his throat.  
  
Sirius hesitated, watching. There wasn't anything he could do, but he hated this as much as Remus, if not more. But when Remus' face started elongating and the teeth stuck out visibly, he had to transform into a dog unless he wanted to be dead in a few minutes. He turned and dashed away further down the hill, so that Remus wouldn't catch the lingering scent of human and mistake Sirius the dog for Sirius the man and attack him.  
  
Of course, there was no Remus left to attack anyone. He was just a wild animal now. Savage and cruel. Nothing at all like the Remus Lupin everyone knew the other twenty-eight days of the month, when he was kind and quiet and respectful; and, well – human. When he was Remus the bookworm who failed to be a mediwizard when he grew up because he was terrible at Potions, but who had nevertheless always had a passion for helping people. Sirius watched the hill-top mournfully, as the half-wolf, half-man collapsed completely onto his face an gave a barely audible moan.  
  
There was a very loud crack as his knee joints finally switched directions and a spasm of pain passed through him, but he bit his lip with his new fangs until the blood flowed freely, staining the dry brown grass. He stifled a howl, because while he still had his right mind, at least somewhat, he did not want to hear that awful noise. But what was left of his right mind vanished a moment later and he rose onto four legs, fully transformed, not a drop of humanity left in his animal form.  
  
Sirius listened to the wolf's howl from the foot of the hill and wished that dogs could wince. He looked back up at the hill-top with his lamplike yellow eyes and saw that the wolf was moving swiftly down the other side. He trotted back up to follow, waiting for a while on the hill-top so he wouldn't be seen, and watching the stealthy form of his changed friend sauntering into the woods. Finally there was nothing else for it; when Remus changed, Sirius' priorities changed with him. The villagers needed protecting, if the wolf got that far.  
  
He changed from a walk to a breakneck run down the hill, vanishing into the woods after the werewolf.  
  
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FIN


End file.
